Every year as a faculty member in an urban-focused, university-based teacher education program, I pose the following questions to the teacher certification candidates and certified teachers in my classes: What is your vision of social transformation, and how far are you willing to go in your capacity as classroom teachers to achieve it? Sadly, the murder of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida is the latest of a never-ending series of tragedies that underscores the urgency of these questions. As teacher educators, it is crucial that we seize this moment to encourage and support classroom teachers’ efforts to end white supremacist violence in the lives of youth of color.

Those who deny the permanence of white supremacy in America will surely concoct a litany of excuses and justifications for George Zimmerman, the man who has admitted to killing Trayvon Martin. As demonstrated time and time again, white supremacy is amazingly adept at defending itself by denying its very existence. Regardless of whatever preposterous defense may prevail on Zimmerman’s behalf, the details of Trayvon Martin’s final moments paint a clear picture of a young man who became yet another casualty of American society’s enduring, well-rehearsed, and unforgiving assault on black bodies. That advocates for redress on Trayvon’s behalf are forced to make the case for the obvious—America’s suspicion of and contempt for young black males—detracts time and energy better spent on strategizing our collective responses for justice. Consequently, I will not devote more time to asserting the obvious. Readers who want to debate the “merits” of the case against Zimmerman are encouraged to do so in other spaces.

What I hope to do in this blog entry is to engage fellow teacher educators in discussions of the roles that we can play in the aftermath of Trayvon’s death. The public outcry over Zimmerman’s audacity and the Sanford Police Department’s complicity has turned the murder of Trayvon Martin into a potentially powerful teachable moment. The following are strategies that teacher educators can use to help teacher certification candidates and certified teachers transform this tragedy into a springboard for critical thought and collective action.

1) Engage teachers in rigorous examinations of white supremacy. The gravity of Trayvon Martin’s murder and the subsequent silence that surrounded it cannot be fully grasped without a critical understanding of white supremacy as a systemic arrangement of power that has privileged the lives and interests of white Americans from this nation’s inception, and that continues to do so despite social and political struggles for racial equality. Framing the historical and systemic nature of white supremacist power in America is crucial for helping white educators—specifically those who bristle at critical analyses of white supremacy—to understand those analyses as critiques of oppressive systems of power, not as indictments of individual white people. A critical examination of white supremacy can also help teachers of all racial and ethnic backgrounds to understand that while white supremacy privileges white people over racialized others, it can be reproduced by a multicultural cast of characters that aligns itself with white supremacist power structures (e.g., someone like George Zimmerman). In my experiences as a teacher educator, work in critical race theory by scholars like Gloria-Ladson Billings, William Tate, and Adrienne Dixson, analyses of privilege and power by Allan Johnson, and racialized examinations of white teachers by scholars like Christine Sleeter and Gary Howard, have been great resources for teachers who are learning to grapple with the realities and repercussions of white supremacy. A rigorous understanding of white supremacy is a prerequisite for teachers who want to stand against the white supremacist domination of youth of color.

2) Help teachers to connect youth of color to resources and strategies for negotiating white supremacist oppression, both individually and collectively. Learning to resist is not just a political undertaking—it is also a pedagogical act. As Paulo Freire’s groundbreaking work has taught all of us, just as the oppressed have to learn the terms of their oppression, they can also learn to create the conditions for their liberation. Teacher educators who are committed to social justice must find ways to support classroom teachers’ efforts to facilitate analyses of and resistance against white supremacy with youth of color. Including texts in our courses by scholars like Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade, Ernest Morrell, Marc Lamont Hill, David Stovall, and Korina Jocson can provide teachers with models for how to transform their classrooms into spaces where youth of color can examine how oppressive forms of power have shaped their lives, and how they as young people can transform their lives by turning critical reflection into strategic action. Creating assignments in our teacher education courses that require meaningful applications of web-based resources from organizations like the ACLU and the NAACP can encourage teachers to educate youth of color on their rights and connect youth of color to potential advocates at times when their rights, as in the case of Trayvon Martin, are violated. Going a step further, by connecting teachers in our courses with community-based organizations with successful track records of facilitating youth-centered political mobilizations, teacher educators can help teachers to identify safe spaces outside of their classrooms to which they can direct youth of color who want—or need—to seek out and participate in local political advocacy networks. While some of these suggestions may seem beyond the conventional domain of teacher educators’ responsibility to help teachers master sound classroom management techniques and instructional methods, they all speak to the urgency for teacher education programs to prepare classroom educators who can address the exigencies of white supremacist violence and oppression in the lives of youth of color. Trayvon Martin and millions of youth of color like him need tools and resources for managing their daily encounters, both individually and collectively, with those who despise them. Teachers are well-positioned to make those tools and resources available.

3) Encourage teachers to support and/or engage in political mobilization. Just as learning to resist is a pedagogical act for youth of color, it is also a pedagogical experience for teachers. America’s classroom teachers possess insights into both the plight and promise of youth of color that could position them as powerful political advocates on their students’ behalf. Teacher education programs that are driven by a commitment to social justice must consider how to help teacher certification candidates and certified teachers to explore the possibilities of their political voice. Imagine, for instance, if Trayvon Martin’s teachers, in the days following his murder, had taken a collective public stand to call for George Zimmerman and the Sanford Police Department to be held accountable. Unlike Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow, the NAACP, or faceless bloggers, his teachers could have immediately humanized Trayvon through their own firsthand accounts of his academic promise, and they could have grounded their calls for legal accountability in their positionalities as caring adults who have committed their careers to serving all youth. In a nation where the dehumanization and criminalization of youth of color, as in the case of Trayvon Martin, become justifications for attempts to imprison or annihilate them, teachers have access to discourses of adolescent promise and pedagogical caring that could bolster campaigns to protect youth of color against racial profiling, imprisonment, and other social injustices. This form of teacher advocacy for the safety and dignity of youth of color could be particularly powerful if articulated by multiracial coalitions of teachers modeling a multiracial commitment to valuing the lives of youth of color. As teacher educators, it is our duty to include case studies in our classes of how teachers have mobilized their collective political agency not simply for contract negotiations, but also in support of the interests of youth, parents and other community stakeholders. It is also our duty to be honest about the risks of teachers’ political mobilizations, as school bureaucracies in this country have dubious histories of surreptitiously silencing and expelling educators who dared to speak out against various forms of injustice. In my current classes, I have found it extremely beneficial to invite teachers who belong to a local grassroots educational reform coalition to speak in my classes. For the prospective and full-time teachers in my courses, hearing directly from other teachers about how to negotiate the risks of being an openly politically active teacher helps them to determine their own levels of comfort with those risks. For teachers who, for whatever reason, are not comfortable being on the frontlines, I try to identify less public ways for them to participate in political advocacy work while still pushing them to recognize their power to serve as agents of change outside of their classrooms. As the criminalization of youth of color continues to place these young people in vulnerable situations, it is crucial that teacher educators help classroom teachers to consider multiple strategies for taking a stand against the social and political injustices that place their students at risk.

While the three strategies described above focused on helping teachers to address the effects of white supremacist domination in the lives of youth of color, it should be noted of course that white supremacy is not the only form of domination that affects students of color, and that it is also important for teachers to help white students negotiate white supremacy’s impact on their lives. This blog entry’s focus specifically on white supremacy in the lives of youth of color reflects an attempt to turn the growing public demoralization over the grim circumstances of Trayvon Martin’s death into targeted, intentional, and inspired efforts at advocacy and mobilization. I did not know Trayvon, and I must admit my own discomfort with the way in which his tragic death has already made him into an overdetermined construct of the plight on young black males. Sadly, white supremacy repeatedly confines public perceptions of youth like Trayvon Martin within dangerously limited and inaccurate stereotypes that justify their vilification. If teacher educators can help prospective and current teachers to take a pedagogical and political stand against the white supremacist domination of youth of color, we may come closer to the day when youth like Trayvon Martin are known for who they truly are.

13 Responses

The location of Martin’s death, within the confines of a gated community, brings to mind Setha Low’s (2009) article “Maintaining Whiteness: The Fear of Others and Niceness,” which interrogates the whiteness of gated communities. She posits that “social splitting, creation and surveillance of purified spaces, and the homogenization and racialization of space help to explain how dualistic thinking (in this case White/ non-White) becomes embedded in the local culture” (p. 90). Each of these explanations tie in here: The fear of the other manifesting itself in the built environment, the gates and walls splitting good insider from bad outsider, Zimmerman’s suspicions that an outsider would threaten the neighborhood’s stability, Zimmerman’s obsessive surveillance, and Martin’s inability to become an insider because he could never look the part. The consequences are deadly.

There are so many ways, so many angles to begin this necessary dialogue. The horrors coming out regarding Trayvon Martin’s murder and the difficulty in deciding where to begin can paralyze us. So thank you, Ed, for opening this discussion and for framing it around action. If we are going to make headway in dismantling racism and racial stereotypes, we must interrogate Whiteness and white privilege fully, not only the Whiteness of people, but the Whiteness of spaces (like gated communities).

There is no defense or justification for Zimmerman, period. From his history of obsessive xenophobia and paranoia, it would seem that he is not merely a bigot, but also mentally ill. He should be arrested and confined for the rest of his life. It’s surprising that he was not recognized as a dangerous “time bomb” before this ever happened. He had no business even being allowed to possess a weapon. This entire ongoing story is horrible beyond words. I am a white woman, and I cannot imagine how anyone of any race could find anything to say in defense of Zimmerman. This is a tragedy beyond belief.

This continued demonization of “whiteness” on the Left and in particular educators who allow this brand of racism to continue in their narrative is inexcusable. Enough with the “whiteness theories”. To reduce what happened in Florida to “RACISM” is to completely avoid what actually happened there and what would make it better. The longer this kind of rhetoric and enabling continues, the longer the problems that plague the Black community will continue.

I get that this tragedy was prompted by racism, but white supremacy? Wasn’t Zimmerman Hispanic? Our papers descibe him as a non-native English speaker whose primary language is Spanish. In the photos, he appears to be Hispanic. He is a minority too!

As a white person living in this country, its often overwhelming to realize that an integral aspect of ones identity, which you haven’t ever been forced to consider, might provide unsought or unknown privileges that make one complicit in the brutal history of white supremacy. As a white male teacher/teacher educator who seeks to teach anti-racism, I am a firm believer that a rigorous examination of white supremacy must always include a perpetual grappling with ones own identities and privileges. Toward that end I thought I would share a short list of artifacts that continue to help me to do that work on my own identity; forcing me to perpetually identify and critique the ways in which I am complicit in the legacy of white supremacy, at the same time as they help me to think of new ways of forward.

Making Meaning of Whiteness: Exploring Racial Identity with White Teachers by Alice McIntyre
Black Bodies, White Gaze by George Yancy
Race Matters by Cornel West
Waking up White and in Memphis by Robert Bernasconi (Book Chapter)
A Talk to Teachers 1963 by James Baldwin (Transcribed Speech)

Although this diverges into territory that I don’t think we should spend too much time on (as Dr. Brockenbrough is right to point out) I did want to address Alison’s question. Alison, I think one of the key points that Dr. Brockenbrough makes, is that white supremacy is not confined to overt acts of oppression and violence perpetuated by white bodies against black bodies. Rather, its a historical legacy of systemic and institutional racism that impacts the lenses with which all of us view the world and the actors who inhabit that world. This historical legacy continues to construct black bodies (of young black men especially) as dangerous, not only to white people but to all those who hold and defend (regardless of skin color) the power and authority granted by the legacy of white supremacy. In this way, white supremacy continues to be felt throughout society, even as we move into (what some have mistakenly called, in my opinion) a “post-racial” era of American history.

Thank you Kristy Snyder for your lesson plan (above link), asking students to view Trayvon as “inherently Other that night” and asking your students to think about the assumptions made of that event and the issues leading up to the event. Your idea of reading the first two chapters in Troubling Education by Kevin Kumashiro in preparation for this lesson is a great lead-in.

Another lens to see this issue through is the way the police handled the situation. Imagine, for a moment, that the youth that was killed was white or latino or mixed race, and the neighborhood watch volunteer was a black man (carrying a weapon that he wasn’t supposed to be carrying). Upon arriving at the scene, seeing that a black man had killed a white or latino youth carrying a bag of skittles and an iced tea, do you think the police would have believed the black man’s story of self-defense and let him go, not even giving him a drug or alcohol test or doing a background check? I think not. More than likely, they would have arrested him on the spot “pending further investigation” at best.

The media, too, would have more than likely vilified the black man in the press. BLACK MAN KILLS UNARMED WHITE/LATINO YOUTH might have been the headlines. And the public outcry would have been focusing on the sentence the black male should get – he would have been guilty until proven innocent. White supremacy is a systems problem – it is racism that has been institutionalized.

Legal scholar Frances Lee Ansley explains his definition of white supremacy as follows:
“By “white supremacy” I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups. I refer instead to a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.” Ansley, Francis Lee (1997). “White supremacy (and what we should do about it)”. In Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (eds.). Critical white studies: Looking behind the mirror. Temple University Press, p.592.

We need to dismantle the system of racism in education and society if Brown v. Board of Education is going to have any lasting meaning. One excellent way of continuing that work is by critically analyzing the Trayvon Martin case and connecting it to the everyday decisions we as educators make in empowering ourselves and our students with knowledge and a sense of responsibility toward social justice activism.

Excellent and insightful piece. Certain to stir up responses on all sides. Important to speak the truth, to call it like it is and to encourage action as an antidote to the terrible despair this murder has generated. Thank you.

The sad part is that this is not an isolated incident. Check theSPLC Report. The murder due to Zimmerman being filled with fear or hate or whatever is a trajedy. The fact that so many people want to justify his actions, points to the greater trajedy, not learning from the event, not humbling ourselves to come together and start working things out. We will continue to repeat these actions till we become mired in senseless retribution. The innocent are always the ones that get hurt when this occurs. After the Obama election I had family members that were so angry with us that we could not have civil conversations. They looked for any shred of evidence to condemn or ridicule us. The motive was… you figure it out. When political leaders say that we should shoot illegals like we shoot wild pigs and they are not censured and forced out of office, (Kansas legislature I think?) what path are we on? certainly not a peaceful or sane one.

actually, there is a defense for zimmerman. it is called due process. deny that, and you defile the memory of every sacrifice made for the ideals of freedom from oppression, you defile martin luther king. and you defile the memory of trayvon martin. you seem to think zimmerman guilty of murder. i do too, but i do not know, and you do not know. we all “knew” of course, that the duke lacrosse team was guilty of privileged white guys gang-raping an oppressed black woman, and even had those smart professors at duke write a group statement of condemnation for these guilty curs. Then the truth came out through due process barely carried out. now in this case we have NBC falsifying the transcript of the 911 call in the Martin case, and CBS releasing substandard video of zimmerman. We later find that the transcript was doctored, and the video really does show injury. does the commercially-valuable but morally bankrupt false certainty of mr. brockenborough accommodate the possibility of facts like these in pursuit of what happened? if zimmerman is guilty, justice does not need lies by NBC, or race-mongers like brockenborough to assert knowledge they do not possess.
nice to see rochester university has put race-baiting hucksters in positions of responsibility. my children live love, respect, and powerful community with people of all flavors and colors. they will never go to a place that promotes such hucksterism.

I am on my feet applauding the response above by “luke liberty.” There is far too much “certainty” on both sides. People jump too quickly to conclusions, based mostly on what they want to be true or what they expect to be true, and what is lost in all that is TRUTH. Justice for Trayvon? Yes, I hope for that. But there can be no justice without truth.

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